Conduit Joins Billion-Dollar Club As Yozma Sells Stake

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Update:An earlier version of this post identified the firm that was supposedly buying Yozma’s shares, but they’re now denying that they were involved in the deal, so I have removed them from the story at their request.

Yozma invested $1.5 million for 9 percent ownership of Conduit in 2006. Now it’s selling its stake for $250 million to an unidentified investor. In other words, it’s seeing a return that’s nearly 200 times the size of the initial investment. According to Globes, the Israeli venture capital industry has never seen a return on that scale.

This deal values Conduit at $2.5 billion — which, incidentally, puts it in the billion-dollar league that Index Ventures partner Saul Klein predicted for it last year. The company started out as a toolbar startup, partnering with both Google and then Microsoft, but it recently rebranded as a wide-ranging service to help publishers engage their users. Conduit says it works with 260,000 publishers to reach 250 million users in 120 companies.

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CrunchBase

OverviewConduit is a mobile-first software innovation company that pioneers groundbreaking ways for people to engage with their mobile and desktop devices. Founded in 2005, Conduit became Israel’s largest Internet company, valued at $1.3 billion in 2012. With time, Conduit shifted its focus to the fast-growing arenas of mobile and digital engagement. Conduit’s suite of offerings include: Como, the world’s …

OverviewThe Yozma Group is an Israeli venture capital firm that focuses its investments in the Communications, Information Technologies, and Life Sciences sectors.
Since its inception in 1993, they have managed over $170 Million across two funds.